The field of the disclosure relates to wind turbines, and more particularly to wind turbines including sensor assemblies for detecting characteristics of wind.
Most known wind turbines include a rotor having multiple blades. The rotor is sometimes coupled to a housing, or nacelle, that is positioned on top of a base, for example, a tubular tower. At least some known utility grade wind turbines, i.e., wind turbines designed to provide electrical power to a utility grid, have rotor blades having predetermined shapes and dimensions. The rotor blades transform kinetic wind energy into blade aerodynamic forces that induce a mechanical rotational torque to drive one or more generators, subsequently generating electric power.
Wind turbines are exposed to large variations in wind inflow, which exerts varying loads to the wind turbine structure, particularly the wind turbine rotor and shaft. Some known wind turbines include sensor assemblies to detect characteristics of the wind such as direction and speed remotely. The detected wind characteristics are used to provide optimized power performance and to control the mechanical loads of the wind turbine. The accuracy, cost, and reliability of the sensor assemblies are at least partially determined by a scanning speed of the sensor assemblies. Some sensor assemblies include active scanning systems and/or laser devices that are configured to emit multiple laser beams. However, active scanning systems and multiple beam laser devices increase the cost to assemble and operate the sensor assemblies. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a sensor assembly for a wind turbine that has increased accuracy and does not require active scanning systems and/or multiple beam laser devices.